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The oirish people had their time and now no-one likes them or cares about them. That is the truth. For some reason they were the people that moved to america and then later were dubbed white trash so now you know that as well.
Smiths are English, none of them grew up in Ireland. Anyway, why does nationality come in to everything?
Thing is, if someone was born in Ireland to parents from somewhere else and they are successful there Irish, then if somone was born in a different place and successful with Irish parents apparently there Irish aswell, where's the logic in that?
I don't disagree with that, im not english anyway. I am saying according to certain irish people, not just this article, i didn't mean what the individual who was born where ever thinks, i mean being claimed by other irish people.1. The Irish Times article and the book it draws on don't claim The Smiths as Irish, but as Irish-English, which is how Morrissey and Marr see themselves (e.g. as 'Mancunian-Irish', or 'one of us on both sides'). The book in question does not claim The Smiths for Ireland; it sees them as born in England of Irish descent. It is clearly possible to grow up in England with parents from somewhere else and feel partly attached to that 'somewhere else'. This is certainly the case with The Smiths (ask Marr and Moz).
2. Nationality doesn't, or shouldn't, come into everything, but if you were second-generation Irish in England in the 1970s and 80s, the issue of nationality was something that you were forced to consider, whether you liked it or not. Also, The Smiths and Morrissey have engaged with issues of nationality in their work (e.g. 'The Queen Is Dead', 'Irish Blood, English Heart'), so it is relevant to these artists (they brought it into things, not the critics or fans).
3. It is quite possible for people born in Ireland to parents from somewhere else to be seen as belonging to that somewhere else. What about the Duke of Wellington? Or even Jonathan Swift.
4. It seems to annoy certain people who are invested in The Smiths' Englishness to see their band being re-positioned as part Irish. But this is the truth of the band's story. Read the chapter on The Smiths in this book, which draws on a new interview with Marr, and makes a subtle case for The Smiths as Irish-English, or 'in-between'.
For more on this topic, see http://www.examiner.ie/opinion/books/irish-blood-pumps-new-heart-into-english-music-154482.html OR http://theknockingshop.blogspot.com/2011/06/irish-blood-english-heart.html
I don't disagree with that, im not english anyway. I am saying according to certain irish people, not just this article, i didn't mean what the individual who was born where ever thinks, i mean being claimed by other irish people.
I feel absolutely nothing when I see the Union Jack, except repulsion ..
Hey Johnny Barleycorn, I think you're being unfair to Marr. I am of a similar generation, and believe me, in 70's and 80's Britain, the union jack represented nothing except right wing thuggery. The flag was used almost exclusivley by the far right. Ofcourse, as of late, with the likes of Billy Bragg and, indeed our Moz, there has been a movement to reclaim the imagery of english nationalism but for those of us who lived through the 80's, the initial response is hard to dispense with.I unfollowed Marr on Twitter because he kept coming out with that sort of achingly right-on bullshit.